George Clooney Rejects Daily Mail Apology for Story About Fiancée's Mother

That’s true of Britain’s Daily Mail, says George Clooney, who has rejected an apology from the paper over a story suggesting his fiancée’s mother opposes their marriage and would prefer her daughter marry a member of the Druze religious group.

The apology, says Clooney, is flatly disingenuous and only adds to the original offense.

“There is one constant when a person or company is caught doing something wrong. The coverup is always worse,” the actor, 53, writes in a statement in USA Today.

“In this case, the Daily Mail has printed an apology for insinuating religious tensions where there are none. In the apology, managing editor Charles Garside claims that the article was ‘not a fabrication,’ but ‘based the story on conversations with senior members of the Lebanese community.’ The problem is that none of that is true.”

The actor, 53, goes on to suggest that the story was a premeditated lie, though he does see a silver lining.

“I thank the Mail for its apology,” Clooney writes. “Not that I would ever accept it, but because in doing so they’ve exposed themselves as the worst kind of tabloid. One that makes up its facts to the detriment of its readers and to all the publications that blindly reprint them.”